1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bag-making, filling and packaging apparatus with a weighing unit (device) by which a bag made of a film sheet or the like is filled with goods such as potato chips by every given weight in a backyard of a supermarket, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
As well known, an improvement in citizen's life has been supported by a remarkable development of technology, and for example, the life of food, clothing and shelter is remarkably largely caused by the merits supported by the excellent quality of the respective goods and the circulation which is quantitatively stabilized
For example, when selling or purchasing the goods of foods such as potato chips in the transaction of the goods on the market for the circulated goods, it is greatly important that the weight and capacity of the goods are uniformly and standardizedly determined to one given value for transaction from the viewpoint of standardizing the circulation. Accordingly, there is a demand in which the goods are assorted or the weight and capacity of the goods are measured in the backyard of the supermarket on the market for the circulated goods.
For example, when the goods are filled and packaged in a bag made of a film sheet or the like in the backyard of the supermarket, a technique by which the bag is made with the film sheet, filled with the goods and packaged, has been put to practical use and widely employed.
In a general and practical manner, there is such an explanation that the goods such as the potato chips which have been weighed to a predetermined weight are filled and packaged in the bag of the pillow type or the like. The outline of this general mode is briefly described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7A and 7B a vertical type of bag-making, filling and packaging apparatus 1, a film sheet 3 made of a polyethylene sheet or the like wound around a bobbin 2 is formed as a cylindrical bag-making film sheet 3' on the outer side of a chute pipe 7 provided through a former 6 while being drawn through guide rollers 4, dancer rollers 5 and the former 6. Both sides of the film sheet 3' formed in a cylinder is thermally sealed by a vertical heat sealer 8 and the portion protruded from the lower end thereof is sealed by a lateral heat sealer to make a bottom portion Ill of the cylindrical film sheet 3'. The cylindrical film sheet 3' is drawn down at the outer side of the chute pipe 7 at a predetermined timing by a draw-down unit 9 disposed at the side of the vertical heat sealer 8. The goods such as potato chips of a predetermined weight which has been weighed by a weighing unit 10 connected with the chute pipe 7 in a predetermined manner are put in the cylinder 3' from the upper opening of the chute pipe 7. A bag filled with the goods and closed at the portion of 112, at which a subsequent bottom portion is formed simultaneously, which is obtained by cutting piece by piece at the portion 112 through a cutter built in a lateral heat sealer not shown and then transported through a conveyor not shown to a packaging machine or the like downstream.
There can be connected with an auger filler 10' as a capacity measuring unit shown in FIG. 7A or a volume measuring unit 10" shown in FIG. 7B instead of the weighing unit 10.
In the above conventional vertical type of bag-making, filling and packaging apparatus, when the bag of the pillow type in which the goods are filled is made, since the height of the apparatus becomes tall when the vertical type of bag-making, filling and packaging apparatus 1 is used, and the weighing unit 10 is also connected thereto, the height of a space where the apparatus is accommodated needs to be increased in the backyard of the supermarket or the like. This leads to such a drawback that the apparatus cannot be located in the space where the ceiling is low or at a place where the space is small, and also to such difficulty that the weighing unit is considerably expensive, and the designing freedom of combination of the vertical type of bag-making, filling and packaging apparatus 1 and the weighing units 10, 10' or 10" is low to make it very hard to design the apparatus location.
The above problem is caused not only by a case in which the weighing unit 10 is directly mounted on the chute pipe 7, etc. but also by a case when the auger filler 10' shown in FIG. 7A is used, in which a problem is caused by a fluctuation of the weight due to a variation in the apparent specific gravity of the goods because the auger filler 10' is a measuring unit that naturally measures the capacity, resulting in an inconvenience when a predetermined weight is indicated on the surface of the bag which has been filled with the goods.
Similarly, in the volume measuring unit 10" shown in FIG. 7B, the weight fluctuates due to a variation in the apparent specific gravity of the goods as in the above auger filler, resulting in inconvenience when a predetermined weight is indicated on the surface of the bag which has been filled with the goods.
To cope with these drawbacks, there are such modes that the weight of the goods packed in the bag is checked per every bag, and the weight is arithmetically operated to measure the capacity, or the weight is fed back to the auger filler 10' to change the supplied amount of the goods. However, these modes need to have the structure of the device remarkably complicated, resulting in a drawback that the costs increase.